Norton Internet Security, Antivirus and 360 Being Retired?

lol no offense but you are very wrong. i can tell you i know SO MANY people who buy boxed av's at places like staples, office depot, office max, target, walmart.... you are very wrong. no its not the main place they buy it anymore but it still plays a large part in it. places like staples have awesome sales on av software and i know both local store managers and they sell out often when a certain one is on sale in the weekly flyer.

 

Most software developers/publishers I know don't even bother with retail anymore. Digital delivery puts the money in their hands so they can develop better product rather than dumping 60-80% into the supply chain. Retail is a joke, so they sell a case or two of an AV during a big sale, at the same time online retailers push out twice as much virtual copies. Best Buy didn't drop Norton, Norton is moving away from the profit-poor publisher/distribution/retail model, same with Trend. I find it hilarious anyone thinks people still walk into Radioshack or Best Buy and say "I'm here looking for an Antivirus".. I'm sure it happens on some occasions, but I still find it hilarious.

 

nortons is still available at all the other major retailers i know of best buy is the only one i see without it. and trend is still boxed at ALL major retailers including every one i mentioned previously including best buy. im not saying they sell many more through retail, of course they sell more via digital delivery methods but many are still sold retail and MANY people still buy them there. im sure one day they will not be sold retail but imo thats a ways off. many people like the boxed versions they want to go into a store and buy the box same goes for many other products which is why we still have big box stores which imo will never fully go away because people want to physically touch products. been in retail since i was 16 years old in one form or another and this has always been and always will be the way it is for many people including myself i much prefer to buy local in the store if i can find a good deal.

 

I'm just saying most of these AV vendors are moving away from retail, or scaling down. One of the things being discussed at these firms is not shipping actual boxes anymore, instead the retailer will sell the license key itself. All that you will see in the store is a piece of cardboard with a UPC on it. From there you will follow a HTTP link on the receipt, and presto you have your product. Touchy-feely kind of products will always have a place in stores (furniture, beds, etc), but for the majority of items they will move online. Online sellers are getting around such issues as trying on shoes, or selling glasses by allowing people to exchange items for free until they fit or are satisfied. Quality, quantity, and variety all suffer in stores, and people are very weary of it. For example I needed some LED ropes to juice up a server room that has virtualized - the executives want 'flashy lights' when they show it off to clients. I called 7 local stores and found nothing. 3-4 clicks online, and I have a cheap box of LED rope arriving in a few hours. It's hardly worth even wasting a minute with retail anymore IMO. Retail now is a shell of what it was 20 years ago.

 

that isn't how norton activation works according to norton themselves,I have always found best place to find any correct info on any product is to ask the vendor directly,sounds as if best buy may have been doing something dodgy and it was Norton who pulled the plug on them?

 

http://community.norton.com/blogs/p...ements/discontinuation-norton-hotspot-privacy

http://community.norton.com/blogs/product-update-announcements/arrêt-de-commercialisation-de-norton-anti-theft

http://community.norton.com/blogs/product-update-announcements/discontinuation-norton-one

 

Has anyone used this with Windows 10 preview? I just installed win 10 on a system, and am in search for an AV.

 

It did not work with the preview back when it first came out. I assume by now they've patched it.

 

Do not expect compatibility until Windows 10 is released. http://community.norton.com/comment/5968421#comment-5968421

 

Basically the only AV I've found for Win10 is the 360TS beta.

 

This may be helpful:

http://www.tenforums.com/antivirus-firewalls-system-security/

 

Thanks.

 

So after having recent issues with the product I had been using since April I decided to go ahead and give NS a trial run despite being displeased with the (lack of) upgrade policy. I spent about a half hour with it before I decided to buy a subscription. I had a chat session with them and got them to add the 350 days I had left on my NIS subscription. As for heaviness, this product is like running nothing. I assume the protection is not also like running nothing, but I expect it will be at least as good as it has been in previous years so good enough for me. As long as they don't stick it to use next year on the subscription (which I realize could happen), I am pleased. So far...

 

Go ahead and dial up the settings to aggressive, and remove low-risk, etc.. You'll find the stronger Insight, and Cloud features actually do offer amazing protection. But the lightness of it can't be denied, to me it's the lightest product out there, offering no discernible difference between a machine with or without it installed.

 

Thanks for the advice. I am leaving low risk as is, I prefer to be asked. What settings are aggressive? I do agree that it is difficult to even tell something is installed. From start up, to shut down, to opening programs and browsers, no lag in anything. Browsing is faster, scrolling is smoother, I am very impressed.

 

Here's how I set it up at home.

 

If Norton could speed up their processes from time of execution to time of detection, I would be a lot happier. It's like their cloud is super slow or something.

 

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. Depends how you define lightness, e.g., cpu/memory use vs. speed of PC and internet surfing. I have a 659 day subscription for the new Norton Security and a license for Emisoft Internet Security 9. I have chosen to use EMIS for a variety of reasons. EMIS operates invisibly like there is no security suite installed on my system. My PC's speed is totally unaffected by EMIS. I don't want to turn this post into a comparative one. Suffice it to say I disagree with your statement.

I believe you have established for yourself a reputation as an experienced and educated IT professional, working a lot with Symantec Endpoint products. Because of your apparent knowledge, my fear is of others accepting your statements as gospel and being mislead. Norton Security is not the fastest security suite out there, at least not on my PC.

 

The consensus seems to be that Norton 2015 is as light as a feature.

As Snippet points out, sometimes the validation of a file can be slower, but this is because some cloud emulation is taking place to detect risky behavior while the local product is isolated waiting for that response.

 

All pc's behave slightly differently to any piece of software,be that a security suite or just a game,if yours doesn't seem to run as well/fast with Norton installed as it does with a different security app then use the other but we have found Norton to be among the lightest products out there in most cases from the time they introduced their 2009 line up,after running the latest product that seems to follow that trend,in fact even lighter than previous products,its a case of suck it and see I guess,as with any product it's good practice to run the free trial to see if there are any issues with yours set up,apart from a marketing tool isn't that what trial periods are for?

 

I do not disagree that NS is light or among the lightest. I said that at least on my PC it is not the lightest.

It's lightness ,among many other things, is the reason I started to use NIS in 2013 and began to use the 2014 version until I had reason to lose confidence in it's self-protection abilities.

I had to start using it again a couple of months a ago when because of an update in Windows or the game I enjoyed playing, or the suite I was using (KIS 2014), I purchased a copy of NIS 2014, because it was the only top rated Security Suite that would allow me to access the game's server. I purchased a license to NS when up at 3AM and saw it go on sale. That is how I now have a 658 day subscription to NS. I do not dispute that it is light. I do disagree with the statement it is the lightest. That's all.

Also, at this time, not only is it the fastest on my PC, but I also have more confidence in the protection abilities of Emisoft Internet Security. At least with EMIS I can view real world and on demand test results, it offers protection against PUPs, and I like the heritage and options of it's firewall.

https://www.mrg-effitas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/360-Q2-2014.pdf

I am aware that the above test was done includes NIS 2014 and Emisoft 8.. But I believe that there are more and siginificant changes in NIS 2014 to NS than there are in Emisoft 8.... to Emisoft 9...........

http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php#

Also, at this time there are known issues with NS. The major issue being "it takes forever to shut down issue," which I understand the source of the problem has been identified and at some time will eventually be patched. There is also the issue discussed in this thread of the effectiveness of it's behavior-blocker when using a device not connected to the net that has been thrown around in this thread.

I personally believe that the response to Norton's Flagship NS has been underwhelming and it may in fact turn out to be to the security industry what Diablo 3 was to the gaming community. The move to cloud based behavior blocking may have been a significant management blunder. Although I understand it's advantages it also has a serious downside.

I have switched back to NS on several occasions because I actually do "like " it and because of certain elements of EMIS 9(such as Action Center Recognition(which is simply corrected by an update manual or auto), and false warnings of its GUI having stopped working-which has been fixed in beta updates), but I always soon remove NS and go back to EMIS. I feel more secure with EMIS 9 for many reasons, it has certain features I really like, and it is every bit as fast , if not faster on my PC as NS.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe that NS is a great product, it's just at this time I much prefer EMIS 9. I fully understand that the philosophy/strategy of NS is focused on blocking which it excels at when connected to the net, so I can excuse it's less than stellar on-demand scanning. But the protection it offers while the device is not connected to the Norton Servers is a legitimate cause for concern.

Let Norton fix the shut down issue and publicly address the concerns about how it's real-time access protection and behavior blocker works when a device is not connected to the net.

 

NS 2015 includes significant improvements over all previous versions. Mostly because some of the better aspects of Symantec Enterprise are now in Norton Security. One of the reasons 2015 is so light is because of a strong reliance on the cloud, and cloud based reputation systems. Trend has/is moving in the same direction, which is why Trend is the only product scoring 100% on AVC's tests now. Trend can utilize millions of dollars in infrastructure to prevent infections, instead of relying on a PC, and signatures on the PC, or emulation that is limited by the PC hardware. All of this of course requires an internet connection. Both products won't function very well without an active internet connection, but that's the way products are all moving.

It's acknowledged that if you cannot provide a solid, stable internet connection you will progressively have less and less product choices as the years progress, or truncated protection. Panda, Trend, Webroot, Norton among those already, probably others. But at the same time if you can provide a stable internet connection you will benefit from a large, expansive, and intelligent infrastructure behind it. Virtualization/Hosted is the way everything is going, and in 5 years we won't even be discussing this because it's all that will be available. Even Kaspersky will have made the switch by then. (imo) I'd be the first to steer someone that can't provide a good stable internet connection away from Trend and Norton! It's not a management blunder, it's how the entire industry is shifting.

 

Agreed. One problem which will hopefully go away by itself in the near future is slow DSL. I still come across it and customers don't understand that its the cause of their perception that the PC is slow, not the hardware. It must place some constraints on cloud based security, but the vendors don't address how the functionality is impacted by connection speed.

 

Liking the new product, a lot.

 

I noticed my notebook with Windows 7 64bit starting taking a long time to shutdown on reboot. By process of elimination I narrowed the culprit down to Norton Security 2015. I found on the Norton forums that I'm not alone with the problem, and Symantec says their engineering team has identified the issue and are working on fix to be released in a future update. I not sure what my shutdown time was when I had NIS 2014 installed, but after disabling Norton Security in msconfig, my shutdown took about 3 seconds. With Norton Security running, it's close to a minute and a half. That's not bad compared to a poster (Also a Wilder's forum member) on the Norton forum who says his shutdown is now up to 20 minutes.